Totto-Chan in Islamic View

After an urge from a brother in Islam (now my husband) to read Totto-Chan: Gadis Kecil di Tepi Jendela years back, I finally had my hands on the book. Since it was a translated text from Japanese to Bahasa Melayu and the translation I must say being done literally, it was quite boring to begin with. Yet I convinced myself to read it to the end and I am glad I did.

The text was an autobiography and written in 1982, obviously an old text and translated and published in Bahasa Melayu in 1989. When it had brought a revise or perhaps a revolution in the Japanese education system I perceive it, perhaps, in a different light. Without arguing that what was written in the book on how children should be educated especially young children was sincerely true and enlightening, I found that the system really had long been outlined in Islam in child education.

The school built by Kobayashi was nothing like our fully equipped schools nowadays but it was far more inviting than ours. He built his Tomoe Gakuen from used train coaches as its clasrooms, the gate was from wild trees and there were an assembly hall where they ate, had public speaking training and met, a pool and a farm where each of the student had a tree. Children were given confidence by inculcating positive values about themselves for example Kobayashi told Totto-chan that she should always know that she is a good girl when in her former school she was thought as nuisance, awkward and trouble for every teacher. No teacher can listen or answer her like Kobayashi had. He spent four hours listening to her. He asked her,

"What do you heve to tell?" and she went on and on... and he listened interestingly!

In Tomoe Gakuen children were asked to wear old clothes so that they would not hesitate to explore without worrying about their beautiful clothes. Another aim was to banish the barrier between the rich and the poor. Children were allowed to solve given problem according to their own arrangements; there was no specific 1, 2, 3 steps and the teachers were ever ready to help.

Each and every games or culture in Tomoe Gakuen were carefully tailored by Kobayashi to build certain conciousness in the children character. He taught them to concentrate by teaching them rhytmic body lesson, he taught them to eat balance diet by emphasising that each child must have one food from the hill and one food from the sea during lunch time and he made the effort to check everyone's food container; if anyone missed any of the food, Tomoe Gakuen will provide it. He taught them to be considerate about other people's feelings and to learn from a knowledgeable person about something. Islam taught us:

Before thee, also the apostles We sent were but men, to whom We granted inspiration: iF ye realise this not, ask of those who possess the Message (al-Anbiya': 7)

For instance he brought a gardener to teach the children about plants and planting. Of course that gardener bore neither certificate nor qualification to certain extand but he mustered gardening like the back of his hands. He was rich with experiences and had had years and years of hands on training in plants and planting. Hence he was the best to teach compared to anyone else. Kobayashi treated his students as friends and spoke freely to them maturely without compromising on their child psychological needs.

All that Kobayashi had done came from his firm principle that humans were doomed when they did not use their eyes to see, ears to hear and minds to think. This is the exact verse that Allah used in verse 179 Surah al-A'raaf:

Many are Jinns and men have we made for Hell: They have hearts wherewith they understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they heard not. They are like cattle, -nay more misguided: for they are heedless (of warning).